fiction

Mystery, crime, murder, unsolved cases. Contribute your own tales of crime to Criminal.

Dirty Laundry
Shannon watches her reflection in the full-length mirror of the bleak changing room before her shift starts. The fluorescent lights shudder and make her look pale. She is wearing her blue work smock and her dark-brown, almost black, hair is tied up and covered by a hair net. Each day blurs into the next, much the same, day after day, again and again.
By Stephanie Morin5 years ago in Criminal
Good Deeds
I don't take kindly to strangers, don't like the heat. Don't like travel and like my quiet. So when I found myself on Highway 50 driving through Nevada with Joe Behan, in 100 degree weather, I can't exactly say I was a happy man.
By Elijah Osheen5 years ago in Criminal
"I've Got What It Takes"
Backstage at 43rd St’s ‘Spelman Club’ – behind the loose-lipped drunks, and the cigar smoke haze, and the big black curtain – Lorna Monroe sat alone, restless.
By Harley Viveash5 years ago in Criminal
Price of One Bullet
“You willing to kill me for 20k?” Dad asked. I did really process his question. My mind was wandering through old memories coming out of the little black book I was flipping through.
By James Transformed5 years ago in Criminal
The Ledger
Cameron struggled to shut the cover as a burst of water shot across the table. Tattered pages soaked up pond scum as they began to float inches above the buckling stone floor.
By Luca5 years ago in Criminal
Pueblito and Dreams
1… “No! Please!” Rome cried out, barely thinking straight after the beating. This can’t be real. He had seen guns before, you don’t grow up in Atoyatlepeque without being close to many, but never this close. Kids like him and Rafa had to thread carefully in a small town in rural El Salvador. They tried to stay out of trouble and yet trouble found them as it did everyone.
By Ricardo Menjivar5 years ago in Criminal
The Book of the Dead
A serial killer strangled my daughter at the tender young age of ten. Her life was snuffed out like a candle before it had time to give off much light.
By Stuart Murray5 years ago in Criminal
The Cost of Crime
“The Cost of Crime” Rocky L. Sharier Vocal Writing Contest 3/1/2021
By Rocky Sharier5 years ago in Criminal
The Traffic Warden
Miniature diamonds glistening in the street lamps aura. Cascading over the already dark tarmac, making it glummer. Appropriate for the night that has been cast upon Ethan. As the crystals relentlessly hound the pavement, constructing their own riverways, one stream appears unique against all the others. You would believe it was Sierra Leone with all the blood congealing and diluting into the liquid jewels running into the drains abyss.
By Marcus Climpson5 years ago in Criminal
Heist
It has been a few hours since we last stopped. All I am able to make out, when the buzz of the radio quiets, is the humming of an engine beneath me and the muffled sounds of two people. Bound at the waist and covered in a weighted canvas, I am unable to move.
By FK5 years ago in Criminal
The Lengths You'll Go
It was her favourite time of day just before the sky went dark. Looking out into the horizon with her best friend Suzie, revisiting the lookout they used to sneak away to. Escaping annoying family get togethers or just the troubles of life, where they would find themselves vomiting up liquors they were once too young for. But this time the sickly feeling was far worse, her heart in her throat and her hands trembling.
By Olivia Murillo5 years ago in Criminal
Franny B
FRANNY B By Sarah Banning A brown, canvas bag sat heavily on Franny’s shaking lap. Her entire body quaked with fear and happiness. She’d done it. And now, here she sat, in Paul’s hunting cabin, just across the Canadian border, $20,000 richer than when she woke up and ate an English muffin twelve hours ago.
By Sarah Banning5 years ago in Criminal